Dream Life Chapter 22: “Completion of Distilled Spirits”

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　It’s the day of the trial run of the distiller that has been installed in a converted warehouse at Scott’s brewery on the Finn River.

　Under Nicholas’ direction, barrels of ale are brought in one after another.

　They are carefully placed into the distiller and the coal at the bottom is lit.

　Nicholas carefully checks the gradually rising temperature of the distiller by listening to the sound with a thin iron rod. Then, after nodding lightly, as if satisfied, he poured the cold water of the Finn River into the cooler connected to the arm’s outlet.

　After a while, a thread-thin, transparent liquid slowly flowed out of the cooler’s outlet. Then it gradually got thicker.

　Bertram caught it in the container and frowned for a moment when I put my face to it.

　I pretend to be a curious kid and take it. Scott tries to stop me, but Nicholas laughs and says, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.” He pretended to be managing the naughty child of his master.

　I put my nose close to the container and sniffed it with my hand.

(It looks okay. It smells like the new pot – that’s what they call freshly made whiskey – that I used to smell at the distillery. It’s also non-peat–not smoked with peat–as it is.) (Zack)

　From what I know, it should be able to be concentrated roughly three times in one batch, so it’s just under 20 percent at the high end of the strength range. The sweet malt smell is a bit strong, but another distillation should bring it to nearly 50 percent.

　I handed the container back to Bertram and smiled at him from an angle that Scott could not see.

　Bertram looked me in the eye and asked, “Success?” I gave him a small nod and told him it was a success.

　I almost jumped for joy at the success, thinking I was making eye contact with an old dwarf.

　I told Nicholas that it was a success, using the keywords I had told him beforehand.

　Being the kid that I am, I ask, “Nicholas, what is this?” I ask. I told him that if I said, “This smells funny,” it was a failure, and if I said, “What’s this?” it was a success.

　He laughed in my words, “It’s a strong alcoholic liquor. It’s too early for you, Master Zacharias.”

“It’s a success. We’ll distill it again in the next distiller. Put everything you’ve made in the cask. Would you like to taste it, Bertram?” (Scott)

　Bertram hesitates slightly at these words, but then puts his mouth on the container, saying, “Let me have a drink.”

　He then took a mouthful in one gulp.

　I wondered if he could handle it, but as expected of a dwarf, he swallowed it down without choking.

“It’s definitely stronger than ale. It’s not so strong that it burns the tongue, but it’s a feeling I’m going to get addicted to. Try it, Nicholas. If you drink it all at once, you might choke.” (Bertram)

　Nicholas nodded and accepted the container. When he took a small sip, he gulped it down and choked a little.

“It’s definitely a little harsh. It has a unique smell, and I think it will sell well as an unusual drink.” (Nicholas)

　Scott then took a sip, but like Nicholas, he also swallowed, “This has a strange taste. Will this work?”

　Apparently, it didn’t fit Scott’s palate.

“If we can make it a little stronger, we can definitely sell it at Caum. If one sip makes you feel like you’ve had a full ale, it’s perfect for us dwarfs who like to drink.” (Bertram)

　It seems that Scott was a little motivated because he got the approval of Bertram.

“Got it! We’ll distill it down and make a stronger one!” (Scott)

　Nicholas then handed Scott a note of caution, and he went on with his research, calling it a little guidance.

(Nicholas is serious. I think I can leave some things to him. If we had a way to measure the proof, we could make the quality consistent, but we don’t have to force it to be constant. That’s also the personality of the liquor. …maybe he’s trying to keep an eye on the distiller to make sure he doesn’t break it?) (Zack)

　I decided to stick around until the second distillation and see what I thought of the redistilled strong spirits.

　First of all, Bertram.

“What the heck is this liquor, I thought at first. However, I can’t get used to the feeling of it burning my tongue when I put it in my mouth, but after it goes down my throat, I can’t resist the feeling of it hitting me in the gut.” (Bertram)

　Scott’s next comment, which Nicholas asked Scott about, was.

“At first I thought my mouth was sore. As Nicholas said when I watered it down, it got a little easier and my stomach got hot all at once. Good or not, it’s a new drink for me.” (Scott)

　Finally, Nicholas’ impression.

“If you ask me if I prefer it, I prefer beer or ale. But if it gets better when kept for awhile, I’m interested enough to wait and see.” (Nicholas)

　Even though it seems that only Bertram liked it, I was a little relieved that it would sell to dwarves.

　Then, on the way home, I asked Bertram for his opinion.

“I think I’d suggest you drink it watered down at first, what do you think?” (Zack)

“That might be better for a normal human being. But I’d rather sell it as is to some riffraff. They live for appearances. They will want to drink this strong liquor as it is.” (Bertram)

　I was going to make a production plan, but I wasn’t sure how much I could make without any market research.

(Not now. It’s a test distillation, so it’s fine. But if we’re going to make a full-scale distillery, we’ll have to start thinking about growing wheat. I should consult with my father about this, along with building more distillation equipment and a storage facility.)

　I go to report to my grandfather and father with the distillate that I put in a jar with Nicholas.

First of all, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I ask them to taste the distilled spirits.

　I had tasted it myself before we came here, but my sensitive four-year-old tongue could not tell the percent of alcohol content at all.

　I transferred it to a plate and lit it on fire. A bluish-white flame immediately appeared, so it seemed to be at least 40 percent.

　Immediately after licking it, my grandfather and father gave me a dubious look. So I gave them one that was slightly watered down with water and further sweetened a little with honey. Since there was no ice, it was a lukewarm cocktail, but I thought it would be easier to drink than the drink as is.

　The two men put it in their mouths and began to gulp it down. After they had finished their drinks to their satisfaction, my grandfather asked…

“If this is the product, I want another cup. Matt, this seems to be the one, but what do you think?” (Govan)

　My father looked at his mug and muttered, “I guess so.”

“We had a good crop of barley this year. I’ll allow you to distill more than usual. As for the cellar… Zack, you have an idea?” (Matt)

“Yes, I do. For the time being, I think we can build an extension next to the brewery where it is easier to transport, but in the future, I am thinking of building a basement here on Castle Hill and using that as a storage area. Distilled spirits are not so temperature-controlled, but for long-term aging, it would have been better if the temperature didn’t rise too high.” (Zack)

　My father snorted and said, “We can’t spend that much money.”

　When I asked him about it, he told me that the amount of money spent on materials for the pump and distiller was more than he had expected and that he would have to cash in his stockpile of grains and other items to meet it.

　It is true that some of the work is being done without regard to cost.

　Especially when it comes to the production of the distillers, Bertram’s hand-paid work is close to nothing. As for my father, he thinks he has to at least pay for the materials.

　Most of the materials are pure copper. This copper comes from Ars, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Caum, and is quite expensive. The reason is that they use “Gold” attribute magic to increase the purity of the copper.

　Whiskey-making is a difficult business to recover from the initial investment. In the 1970s and 1980s, many distilleries closed down in Scotland.

　I have heard that shortly before that, demand grew in the U.S., so they invested in facilities, but demand soon slumped, and they were unable to recover their investment, so they closed their distilleries.

　It might be possible to release this distilled spirit fresh, mostly barley liquor, but considering the brand image, we would like to let it sit for at least three years.

　Then, it would take at least three years to recover the funds. It might be a very difficult situation for the Lockhart family, which is not that wealthy, to begin with.

　I answered, “Okay, I’ll draft a plan,” and left my father and grandfather.

　My plan was to make whiskey from ale, marc from wine pomace, and flavored spirits such as gin that would not require aging.

　The source of the gin’s aroma, juniper berries, was in the woods, so I would use that. My preference would be to add citrus peel to the botanicals, the ingredients that give gin its aroma, but I can’t find any citrus fruits around here, so I’m going to use mint and other herbals that seem to have a strong smell. I’m thinking I could shove some mint or something with a strong herbal smell into it.

　The initial cost will be more important than the running cost since the cost of raw materials is relatively low.

(I think I’ll try to keep the initial investment as low as possible and start with gin, which I think I can recover in a short period of time. …I may sweeten gin with honey or sugar at first and sell it. The first thing to do is to make sure that you have a good product that will help you recover from fatigue. …If this becomes a hit, it will sell the name of Rathmore Village. Then we can go the luxury route…) (Zack)

　After putting together a simple plan and taking it to his father, his father handed Nicholas a bag of gold coins. Inside were ten gold coins, worth 1,000 Crona (equivalent to a million yen), and he told me to try to make do with that.

　I decided to use the money to buy coal as fuel and ale as material. As for the barrels, we decided to use old red wine barrels. It’s a “claret finish” so to speak.

　I’m actually struggling with how to sell the wine at retail.

　There are ways to sell it in barrels, but I would prefer to bottle it and sell it. The quality is more stable, and I think it is difficult to sell in barrels.

　There are no glass bottles, but ceramic pots can be made in this village.

　I found something that looked like a kiln, so I was thinking of making a ceramic bottle like Steinhager, a German gin that comes in a long, thin ceramic container bottle. I am struggling with how to estimate the cost.

　Ceramic jars are common in this world, but they are not in such high demand that they are quite nice and expensive. If you add the cost of the bottles, the liquor itself becomes quite a good price, so I am thinking of introducing a system to retrieve the bottles, a deposit system.

However, this would cost money to transport empty bottles, so it would have little effect on reducing the cost increase.

(I’d be happy with a system where the bottles are disposable at first, and when they sell well, they are transported by the keg and bottled at the place of consumption. Either way, there’s no point in thinking about it now. I guess we’ll have to wait until after it sells.) (Zack)

　I gave Nicholas the written instructions on how to make gin and left it to him and Scott.

　The result was a gin-like product.

　But even Bertram, the dwarf, tilted his head at the taste.

“Is this some kind of medicine? Can’t you do something about the smell? This smell is going to linger not only in my mouth but my stomach as well.” (Bertram)

　I forgot something important.

　I had forgotten that I couldn’t get citrus fruits that went well with gin.

(I should have remembered that during the botanicals. This drink is a sailor’s drink. England, Holland, Spain, Portugal… all places that produce a lot of gin are all by the sea and have easy access to citrus. Well, what should I do…) (Zack)

　I’ve changed my strategy, I should make something a little more drinkable.

　Since I found that gin was not well accepted, I turned my attention to making fruit wine with fruits soaked in it.

　The fruit itself is not very abundant, but there are many berries and wild plums growing in the forest. Since they are used to make dried fruit and for cooking, they should be relatively easy to obtain, so I decided to try pickling them.

　We soaked the berries and plums in a distilled spirit of about 40 percent that had been distilled twice, but the sweetness was far from sufficient.

　Sugar can be obtained by asking a peddler, but I don’t intend to use it at the moment because of the cost.

　The only other options I can think of are honey or malt syrup, but I’m not going to use syrup because I’m going to use alcohol.

(Honey or… wild honey seems to be quite plentiful… but I can’t get a stable supply. I’ll try using wild honey for now, but maybe I’ll try beekeeping one of these days…) (Zack)

　Make a fruit wine with honey added, put it in a jar, and let it sit until spring.

(Didn’t end up making anything that I could sell right away, did I? Well, it’s a good thing we found out it can be distilled.) (Zack)

　In November, we also made Marc by distilling wine pomace, which produced enough Marc for several barrels.

　In December, we tasted the Scotch type, which had been left to mature for about two months.

　Since it was from a smaller cask intended for short-term aging, it had a light but amber color.

　Bertram, Scott, and Nicholas tasted it, and it was well-received by all but Nicholas.

　Bertram was especially pleased, with a big smile on his face, and said, “This one will sell. Even if it doesn’t sell, I’ll buy it all myself,” he exclaimed.

“I want to send this to my friend in Ars. Can you give me some of it?” (Bertram)

　Bertram wanted to send it to his dwarven acquaintances in his hometown of Ars.

　By that time, dozens of test bottles had been made, and about ten bottles were to be sent.

　Then Bertram asked me, looking a little troubled.

“Do you have a name for this stuff? It’s a distilled spirit, you have to tell it apart from the other wines.” (Bertram)

　I pretended to think for a moment and told Bertram and Nicholas, “I think I’ll name it ‘Scotch’ in honor of Scott, who made it.”

　Nicholas nodded his head, “What about the other spirits Scott made?” But since there was no counter-proposal, they decided to name it Scotch, just as I had intended.

A/N: When it comes to liquor, I tend to get really excited.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.

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